Leviticus 14

The first section of this chapter is addressed to Moses alone, and relates to the ritual for cleansing the leper and restoring to full communion with Israel. Leviticus 14:1-32. The second section, addressed to Moses and Aaron, describes the leprosy in a house, and prescribes the mode of its treatment. Leviticus 14:33-57.

CONCLUDING NOTE.

We would not very confidently announce the symbolism of the leprous house, but we would suggest that it prefigures our duty when associated in church relations. In St. Paul’s epistles, the house is the favourite simile of the Christian community, each member being a spiritual stone. 1 Corinthians 3:9-16; Ephesians 2:20-22. In the Corinthian Church the sleepless eye of the apostle discovered a leprous stone. 1 Corinthians 5:1. The whole temple was in imminent peril till that defilement was removed by the uprising of the whole membership in their “vehement desire” to approve themselves “to be clear in this matter.” It is not enough that we be individually blameless; we are, in an important sense, responsible for the aggregate of the Christian Church, and for each member thereof. Hence Jesus, the Head of the Church, assumes a judicial attitude toward his house at Pergamos, and threatens to fight against them “with the sword of his mouth,” because of a few who held doctrines subversive of Christian morality. Revelation 2:12-16. If reproof and warning should prove unavailing, judgment must come at last, and that leprous house, once the abode of some who “hold fast [Christ’s] name,” must be razed to the ground, and its very foundations destroyed. Church membership involves momentous responsibilities, and an isolated Christian life tremendous perils. God has no use for a Church which consciously fosters impurity. Let it repent or be destroyed.